fundingagencies,animals arelistedas“supplies”alongside
test tubes and recording instruments.
In addition to the general attitude of speciesism that
experimenterssharewithothercitizens,somespecialfactors
alsohelptomakepossibletheexperimentsIhavedescribed.
Foremostamongtheseistheimmenserespectthatpeoplestill
haveforscientists.Althoughtheadventofnuclearweapons
andenvironmentalpollutionhasmadeusrealizethatscience
andtechnologyarenotasbeneficialastheymightappearat
firstglance,mostpeoplestilltendtobeinaweofanyonewho
wearsawhitecoatandhasaPh.D.Inawell-knownseriesof
experiments Stanley Milgram, a Harvard psychologist,
demonstratedthatordinarypeoplewillobeythedirectionsof
a white-coatedresearcherto administerwhat appearstobe
(but in fact is not) electric shock to a human subject as
“punishment”forfailingto answerquestionscorrectly,and
theywillcontinue todothisevenwhenthehumansubject
criesoutandpretendstobeingreatpain.^98 Ifthiscanhappen
when theparticipants believetheyare inflictingpain ona
humanbeing,howmucheasierisitforstudentstopushaside
their initial qualms when their professors instruct them to
perform experiments on animals? What Alice Heim has
rightlycalledthe“indoctrination”ofthestudentisagradual
process, beginning with the dissection of frogs in school
biology classes. When the future medical students,
psychologystudents,orveterinariansreachtheuniversityand
findthattocompletethecourseofstudiesonwhichtheyhave
settheirheartstheymustexperimentonlivinganimals,itis
difficultfor themto refuse to do so,especially sincethey
know that what they are being asked to do is standard
practice.Thosestudentswhohaverefusedtoengageinsuch